Hi, everyone. Pardon the wide distribution, but I wanted to make sure I
didn't miss anyone.
As some of you know [1], a workgroup within Debian cooperating with
Creative Commons [2] to make some of their licenses compatible with the
Debian Free Software Guidelines [3] so that CC-licensed works (images,
video, sounds, documentation, help text) can be part of the Debian
operating system. [4]
We reached some good conclusions, which resulted in the current Creative
Commons 3.0 license but unfortunately some of the people in the
Creative Commons community -- a diverse one, just like Debian's -- have
managed to knock the process off track. [5] The license draft now
available leaves out some key clauses that the workgroup thought
necessary to make the license DFSG-compatible.
The draft has been subject to public review for more than a month now,
and the discussion period is drawing to a close. Creative Commons
general counsel has said that they'll consider public opinion when it
comes to making a final decision about this license.
So, for those of you who want to see Creative Commons licenses that meet
our standard of Freedom, this is the time to act. Please, if you haven't
already, take a few minutes to send an email message to the Creative
Commons public review mailing list [6] letting CC know that you support
a Debian-compatible version of the license. "I want a Debian-compatible
Creative Commons license, signed John Q. Hacker" is probably plenty.
Complaining to each other 6 months from now won't do any good; the time
to complain is now, when it can make a difference. We've got a narrow
window in which to let CC know that the Free Software guidelines matter.
Please spread the word to other Debian users and supporters as well as
into the rest of the Free Software community.
Thanks for your time,
~Evan
[1] http://evan.prodromou.name/Debian_Creative_Commons_Workgroup_report
[2] http://creativecommons.org/
[3] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
[4] http://people.debian.org/~evan/ccsummary
[5] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/6017
[6] http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-licenses/
--
Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org>
The Debian Project (http://www.debian.org/)

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